Tsui Hark Makes ‘Tracks’

HONG KONG – Tsui Hark, one of the most innovative Greater Chinese directors, has begun production on “Tracks In The Snowy Forest,” a major 3-D war-action movie.

After a fallow period, Tsui (pictured), a veteran Hong Kong director, has shot back up to the top rankings of Chinese cinema with his recent “Detective Dee” hits.

The film is an adaptation of an action-adventure novel by Qu Bo about a reconnaissance hero who outwitted a group of bandits in 1946.

The production will require significant amounts of war and skiing scenes and the production has set up base camp in the Greater Higgan Mountains in Northern China, where snow is already plentiful. But as the shoot is expected to last up to 5 months, artificial snow machines have also been readied.

Production is by Bona Film Group, China Film Corporation and the August First Studio, which produced a 1960 movie of the same title. International sales are by Bona’s Hong Kong offshoot Distribution Workshop.

Tsui, who has been prepping “Snowy Forest” for five years, has become one of the leading proponents of 3-D film-making in Asia. He recently made “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate,” and “Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon” as big-budget stereoscopic movies.